Optimal Threshold Calculation for Improved Impulsive Noise Mitigation in the Frequency Domain

Impulsive noise (IN) can significantly degrade the performance of multi-carrier based communication systems. In order to improve the performance of such systems, conventional IN suppression methods have been proposed to process the signal in the time domain. However, attention has recently focused on using methods implemented in the Frequency Domain (FD). In general, the aim of IN frequency domain estimation schemes is to consider noise samples whose amplitudes are below a fixed threshold as Gaussian distributed noise and therefore are blanked (nulled). In contrast to existing work, this paper presents a novel optimal threshold calculation method to improve the IN frequency domain mitigation methods. The system adopt in this paper is the G.fast standard which uses high order QAM constellations over copper channels. The derived optimum threshold is used in an IN compensation method based on the relationship between two parameters, namely, impulsive Index A and the noise ratio Γ. In order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, its performance is compared with that of the conventional FD mitigation method which uses a fixed threshold. The impact of both the impulsive Index A and the noise ratio Γ on the DMT-based G.fast copper channel is also discussed in detail. Results show that the proposed method considerably outperforms conventional frequency domain IN mitigation schemes.

[1]  Khaled M. Rabie,et al.  Dynamic Peak-Based Threshold Estimation Method for Mitigating Impulsive Noise in Power-Line Communication Systems , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery.

[2]  Per Ola Börjesson,et al.  Simple and causal twisted-pair channel models for G.fast Systems , 2013, 2013 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM).

[3]  M. Sliskovic Signal processing algorithm for OFDM channel with impulse noise , 2000, ICECS 2000. 7th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems (Cat. No.00EX445).

[4]  John G. Proakis,et al.  Digital Communications , 1983 .

[5]  Luís Díez del Río,et al.  Optimized interpolator filters for timing error correction in DMT systems for xDSL applications , 2001, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[6]  S. V. Zhidkov,et al.  Impulsive noise suppression in OFDM-based communication systems , 2003, IEEE Trans. Consumer Electron..

[7]  Sergey V. Zhidkov,et al.  Analysis and comparison of several simple impulsive noise mitigation schemes for OFDM receivers , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Communications.

[8]  J. Armstrong,et al.  Impulse noise mitigation for OFDM using decision directed noise estimation , 2004, Eighth IEEE International Symposium on Spread Spectrum Techniques and Applications - Programme and Book of Abstracts (IEEE Cat. No.04TH8738).

[9]  Khaled M. Rabie,et al.  Constant envelope OFDM transmission over impulsive noise power-line communication channels , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Power Line Communications and Its Applications (ISPLC).

[10]  Carl J. Nuzman,et al.  The Past, Present, and Future of Copper Access , 2015, Bell Labs Technical Journal.

[11]  David Middleton,et al.  Statistical-Physical Models of Electromagnetic Interference , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility.

[12]  Pierre Duhamel,et al.  On the use of pilot tones for impulse noise cancellation in Hiperlan2 , 2001, Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Signal Processing and its Applications (Cat.No.01EX467).

[13]  Chang-Soo Park,et al.  Optimized threshold calculation for blanking nonlinearity at OFDM receivers based on impulsive noise estimation , 2015, EURASIP J. Wirel. Commun. Netw..

[14]  P. M. Grant,et al.  Digital communications. 3rd ed , 2009 .

[15]  D. Middleton,et al.  Optimum Reception in an Impulsive Interference Environment - Part II: Incoherent Reception , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Communications.

[16]  Martin Johnston,et al.  Non-binary turbo-coded OFDM-PLC system in the presence of impulsive noise , 2017, 2017 25th European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO).

[17]  Per Ola Börjesson,et al.  Measurement and modeling of short copper cables for ultra-wideband communication , 2006, SPIE Optics East.

[18]  Gavin Young,et al.  The noise and crosstalk environment for ADSL and VDSL systems , 1999, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[19]  A. J. Han Vinck,et al.  Iterative decoding of codes over complex numbers for impulsive noise channels , 2003, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory.

[20]  Lie-Liang Yang,et al.  Discrete Multi-Tone Digital Subscriber Loop Performance in the Face of Impulsive Noise , 2017, IEEE Access.

[21]  A. Spaulding,et al.  Optimum Reception in an Impulsive Interference Environment - Part I: Coherent Detection , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Communications.